It’s been a bit since I’ve written, but I just wanted to let you know it hasn’t been because I haven’t been burning the candle at both ends – working hard to Hype your blogs!

Over the past couple months, BallHyped has gained a ton of traction, and, to be honest with you, it’s been tough keeping up with it all.

Last month, we topped 30,000 unique page views in a single day for the first time and were highlighted on major blogging sites such as ProBlogger.net (read on for the details).

Unfortunately, we were also hit with a record number of spam posts recently, which forced me to lock down registration to what was once an open sports blogging community. So know that if you’re part of the BallHyped.com community now, you’re in somewhat of an elite group. We’ll continue to allow top independent sports bloggers to join the community from time to time, but, for the most part, we’re trying to limit participation to only the best independent sports bloggers in the blogosphere – which means no mega sports blog sites, mainstream media blogs or newspaper bloggers, in hopes of promoting those bloggers who could use a little extra hype and support from this community.

Why We're Locking Down Registration

Well, keeping spam out not only protects the integrity of the community and the quality of its content, but it also protects the “followed” links that we point back to your site. The higher the quality content we showcase on BallHyped, the more valuable the links we pass to your site are going to be.

So not only do you get additional traffic and promotion when you share your links on BallHyped, you’re also getting the highest-quality “followed” links that any social/blogging community offers. And high-quality links are gold in the eyes of Google.

And that last SEO tidbit is worth repeating, since many of you run your own blogs. While there have been imitators, no other social voting site offers what BallHyped offers … and no other site is as dedicated to hyping your posts as BallHyped.

BallHyped App for Android

“The BallHyped Blog Network showcases the best sports blogs and independent sports news from around the sports world.”

If you have an Android mobile device, please download the app and give it a five-star rating. The more downloads we get, the more exposure your blog gets. And the more exposure the community gets, the more likely we’ll be accepted into iTunes for those of us (me included!) who have iPhones.

BallHyped on ProBlogger

Along with the recent launch of the mobile app, I was asked to be a guest contributor on ProBlogger.net last month, which was a privilege being it’s one of my favorite blogging resources.

In the post, I mentioned BallHyped on a couple of occasions, which led to a boost in traffic and sign-ups on the site, and translated into more page views for our community members who posted that week. Keep in mind, I try to contribute to major blogging sites like ProBlogger every month, so the more you post on BallHyped, the more likely you are to take advantage of these traffic surges to the community.

Even for our own niche bloggers on BallHyped, it’s a worthwhile lead that will encourage you to branch out and take a different approach with your content in hopes of expanding your offerings … and audience.

Announcing BlogHyped

In that ProBlogger post, I “publicly” announced a site many of you already knew about … BlogHyped.com. BlogHyped is the parent site of BallHyped.com, it’s just BallHyped gets most of my attention because it’s about sports … and sports rule!

But if you have a blog about a non-sports topic, or know somebody who does, please share your content there and also spread the word about the BlogHyped community. My priority has always been BallHyped.com, but many of you have asked for a general blogging community, so I wanted to fill that demand for all of you as well.

While traction has been a little slower on that site, once I get some more resources and additional help from my peeps in the blogosphere, we’ll make sure that site blows up as well.

BallHyped Blogger of the Month: Bryn Swartz

Well, the BallHyped Blogger of the Month Award for May goes to the Blogger of the Year in 2010, Bryn Swartz, of Eagles Central and Philly Buster (you may see his work on Examiner, Patch and Bleacher Report as well). Since BallHyped launched in Sept. 2010, Swartz’s sites have Hyped more than 770 posts!

But even with all of the posts and the Blogger of the Year Award, Swartz’s most impressive showing (he’s so humble he didn’t even mention it to anyone) might’ve come last month when he was invited to the NovaCare Complex to cover the NFL Draft. Over the three days, Swartz put in a mere 28 hours and met virtually every coach, writer and media personality involved with the Philadelphia Eagles franchise.

Oh yeah, and he banged out some of the best NFL Draft coverage you’ll find in the blogosphere.

Nice work Bryn! Good to see all of the hard work paying off for one of BallHyped’s best contributors! And to think this guy is still in college!

We’ll try to highlight a notable blogger every month on BallHyped, not only to reward the top bloggers in the community but also help promote their blog and blogging efforts. Be sure to follow Bryn’s work on the above sites and also follow him on Twitter.

Wanna Blog for Us?

BallHyped has spent the past eight months Hyping the best sports blogs from around the blogosphere, and now that we’ve started to build up a name, more and more people are asking for original content from our own network.

Enter: BallHyped News.

BallHyped is set to unveil its own sports blog news network in the third quarter and is inviting its current roster of members to participate. If you’d like to provide unique content to the network, to not only give back and improve the quality of content on BallHyped, not to mention promote your own blog and take advantage of our resources and traffic volume, contact us at editor@ballhyped.com.

The BallHyped Sports News Network is working on an agreement that could get your name and links to your individual blog on hundreds of mainstream media sites, so if you’d like to Hype your blog even more this year, now’s the time to get in on the ground floor of this exciting new BallHyped service.

Tell Us About Your Success

Every six months, I have a goal of writing a new book or creating a new service for the community I’m most active in.

During Q4 of 2010, it was the BallHyped Sports Blogs of the Year Book. For Q2 of 2011, I’m working on a book that addressed the biggest concern that the bloggers in our community have: How to generate income (even if it’s just supplementing your current day job) with your blog.

But I’ve only had success generating income on a handful of sports and outdoors sites, so I’m reaching out to you today to get your insight on what’s worked best for your blog in terms of generating income.

If you’d like to contribute a quick blurb about what’s worked for you and your blog, please send your story about your successes, and I’ll be sure to include them in the book and also send you a free copy once it’s completed.

Thanks for Getting Hyped!

I know that’s a wordy newsletter, but I’m a writer, and I had a lot of news to report.

But I think that’s it for now. If you have any questions or feedback you’d like to send my way, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m doing everything I can to Hyped your blogs, but I could use all the help I can get. I also have a day job, so please keep that in mind and do your best to support the free resources on BallHyped.com. Anything you can do to support the community is appreciated. One day I’ll be able to do this full-time!